


i think your love would be too much

by Figwood



Category: Golden Boy (TV 2019), The Wilds (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Australian!Shelby, F/F, Fluff, Kahu is oblivious, Slight OOC, this is literally just self indulgence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-23 23:55:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30063513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Figwood/pseuds/Figwood
Summary: “Do you know her or something?” Mitch guesses, folding her arms over her chest. There’s a beat of silence, and she watches Kahu carefully think out her response behind her dark, stormy eyes.“Or something.”Mitch lets out a long, tired groan, exhausted already from Kahu’s strange behaviour, “Kahu. There’s a customer who is asking for you specifically. Will you stop acting like a bloody idiot and get up there?”
Relationships: Shelby Goodkind/Kahu, Shelby Goodkind/Toni Shalifoe
Comments: 16
Kudos: 105





	i think your love would be too much

“Woah, Woah, Woah, what are you doing with those?” Mitch says, eyeing the box of ghost-vapes clutched in Kahu’s hands. 

It’s a humid evening in Crawdon, the glow of the setting sun spilling through the Dairy’s open door and filling the shop with a gentle orange hue. Mitch has been on the register for four hours now, and her back is starting to ache from slumping over the counter on her phone, the high stool she sits on doing nothing to help. This is why, when Kahu enters with a box of vapes and begins stocking one of the shelves with them, she jumps at the chance for a distraction. 

Oh.

And, also, the moral obligation that vapes are bad. Of course.

“We had a few boxes leftover in the back, thought we may as well try and shift them,” Kahu says simply with a shrug. Mitch looks at her like she’s grown a second head. 

“Kahu, those things are terrible for you. And insanely addictive.”

“There’s also fifty of them for ten dollars each.” She fires back. Mitch rolls her eyes. 

“Tama isn’t even the spokesperson for them anymore, we don’t have to wilt under the pressure of conforming to a capitalistical society.” 

“It’s capitalist. Capitalistical isn’t even a word.”

“I knew that.”

“And it’s not my fault the people want them. Who am I to deny Crawdon of their vape desires?”

Mitch gives Kahu a look as she returns to stocking the shelf, lining up the ghost vapes in neat little lines like tiny, nicotine-filled soldiers. 

“Did you not hear what I said about them being addictive?”

“Crawdon aren’t pussys, Mitch.” 

Now Kahu has completely turned away from her, so Mitch takes the opportunity to jam her middle finger up at her younger sister, who, without turning around, simply says, 

“Saw that.”

“Whatever…” Mitch mumbles, looking back down at her phone. She’s about to write a rather strongly-worded tweet about capitalism and vaping that she’s sure will get her three Twitter followers thinking, when the bell above the doorway goes and someone enters the shop. Mitch doesn’t even glance up until she feels a presence in front of her, waiting for an acknowledgement. The girl in front of her is blond. Like, very blond. Shockingly blond, one might even say. The only thing about her more shocking than her long, blond hair is the fact that she’s completely unfamiliar to Mitch. Crawdon is unbearably small at the best of times, so the fact that this one, blond, the stranger is someone that Mitch doesn’t know the name of is definitely something that raises her eyebrow. Still, it could be another tourist who came to see the place where the golden boy, Tama, lived and grew up, so Mitch sits up slowly.

“Hi there, how can I help?” She says, and the stranger smiles a huge, brilliant smile that stretches across her perfect features. She’s definitely younger, around Kahu’s age maybe, but it’s all-too-clear that the girl has the foundations of conventional attractiveness down to a tee. 

“Hi! I was just looking for Kahu. Is she here?” 

Yet another shocking factor is that this girl is not a Kiwi. Oh no, she’s got that distinct and unmissable difference in her accent that any New Zealander can recognise; this girl is an Aussie, through-and-through. Additionally strange because Mitch knows every Aussie in town; mainly because there’s only one, and she’s dating him. 

“Sure, she’s just stacking shelves. Kahu!” Mitch calls past the Australians shoulder, out towards her sister who hadn’t yet noticed the new arrival. Kahu turns, clocks the back of the blond head that's standing at the back of the counter, and then turns around and ducks into the back corner of the Dairy, out of sight. The back of her baggy grey shirt disappears from view just as the Aussie turns to look, and is met with distinctly no one in sight.

Her smile falters only briefly as she turns back to Mitch, “Uh…”

“Hang on, give me a second,” Mitch frowns, sliding out from behind the counter, before immediately jogging backwards to look at the Aussie, “Could you do me a favour and, like, not steal anything whilst I’m gone? That keeps happening and it’s a little annoying.”

“Uh, yeah, I think I can do that.”

“Great!”

She finds Kahu crammed in the very back of the Dairy, out of sight, mindlessly shifting around a shelf filled with jars of peanut butter and jam preserve. It’s clear, though, from the way her hands flutter uselessly as she moves the jars about, that there is no clear goal here, she just wants a reason to keep her hands busy. 

“Kahu, there’s a girl upfront asking for you.”

“Are you sure she needs me? Can’t you just help her?” Her voice is strained, slightly oddly, and she doesn’t meet Mitch’s eyes, instead choosing to stare straight ahead. 

“Uh, no, she wanted you specifically.”

“Okay, well, can you handle it? I’m busy.”

Mitch watches her move a jar of peanut butter around in a triangle before leaving it in its original place and then switches onto the next one to do the same thing. 

“Clearly.” Mitch says voice laced thick with sarcasm, but Kahu says nothing, “Kahu, what the hell is going on? Why are you acting so weird?”

From the way her tousled brown hair is pushed back behind her ears, Mitch can see the way her jaw clenches. 

“I’m not acting weird,” She goes for nonchalance, but her shrug is stiff and awkward and her voice has gone weirdly high-pitched. Yeah. Not weird at all. 

“Do you know her or something?” Mitch guesses, folding her arms over her chest. There’s a beat of silence, and she watches Kahu carefully think out her response behind her dark, stormy eyes. 

“Or something.”

Mitch lets out a long, tired groan, exhausted already from Kahu’s strange behaviour, “Kahu. There’s a customer who is asking for you specifically. Will you stop acting like a bloody idiot and get up there?”

Finally, Kahu turns to shoot her a fiery, aggressive look that's completely filled to the brim with frustration and malice. Mitch simply smiles, and Kahu brushes past her to storm to the register. When Mitch follows after, Kahu’s already rounded the counter, slumped on Mitch’s previously vacated stool and looking anywhere but at the blond in front of her. 

“What can I get for you?” She says stoically like she’s just dealing with another regular. The blond is practically grinning from ear to ear now, her fingers fumbling with the strap of the white purse that’s slung over her shoulder. 

“Hi, Kahu.”

A second passes.

“...Hi. Shelby,” Kahu says, hesitantly.

So ‘Shelby’ is the name of this unfamiliar creature who swept into her parents Dairy and threw her sister into the strangest mood she’s ever seen her in. Mitch is still confused as she pretends to busy herself with neatening a tray of sweets down at the end of the counter, very curious as to see how this interaction would go. It’s clear through their familiarity that they know each other, though she’s not entirely sure how. Kahu seems to not even want to look at the newcomer, whereas Shelby appears very happy just to see Kahu, smiling away like Kahu shot the sun out of her ass. So far, it’s a very strange dynamic, Mitch has never seen Kahu like this, and she’s beyond interested in watching this all play out. 

“I was wondering if I could ask you about the Chemistry assignment?” Shelby prompts, smoothing out the skirt of her yellow sundress. Those buttons at the top of the collar, how long had they been undone? Mitch notes briefly that Shelby’s left collarbone is now on display and wonders if it had been there the whole time. 

“What about it?” Kahu gruffs out, eyes only ever flickering briefly towards Shelby. 

“I wasn’t in school on Friday, I’m not sure if you noticed?” 

“I noticed,” Kahu says, and her eyes immediately go wide and she ducks her head. Even though the curtain of her hair falls over her face, Mitch catches the tail end of a blush tinting her cheeks. Shelby, for her part, looks ecstatic, her back going impossibly straighter, like the news that Kahu had noticed her literally perked her up. 

Mitch frowns. Then she realises. Then she smirks. 

Kahu has a crush on this girl. It’s so painfully obvious that Mitch wants to kick herself for not realising sooner. The nervous energy, the fleeting glances, the hiding, it all makes so much more sense. Journalist extraordinaire Mitch has done it again. And it looks like Shelby might be interested in her too. Once more, Shelby is Australian, the very thing Kahu wound up Mitch for liking Dave for. This is the best news she’s had all week. 

“Great! I mean, not really, actually, I have no idea what I’m meant to do for the assignment. Do you think you could help me out?” Shelby’s voice sounds so hopeful, her bright green eyes shining as she tries to catch Kahu’s gaze, but Kahu’s eyes are fixed on her hands. She’s fiddling with her fingers as she awkwardly shrugs one shoulder, 

“You know, if you email Dave he can just… send you a worksheet.”

Mitch watches Shelby visibly deflate right there in front of her, shoulders slumping slightly, but Kahu is too busy pointedly not looking at her to notice her sunny disposition slip ever so slightly. 

“Oh. Yeah, I didn’t know that, I’ll give it a go. Thanks.” Shelby tries to sound jovial and unaffected by Kahu’s response, but it’s painfully clear to Mitch that she’s disappointed that Kahu dismissed her so easily. And Mitch knows it’s none of her business - knows Kahu might actually kill her - but she just can’t help herself. She has to do something.

And not as someone meddling in the love life of her younger sister because she’s bored. Definitely not. 

“Kahu, didn’t you already finish that assignment? You could help Shelby with hers.” Mitch chimes in with a bright smile, leaning forward so she’s inserted herself into the conversation. The scowl that Kahu sends her is boiling hot, steam practically pouring from her ears, but Mitch simply smirks back because she can see Shelby’s shoulders perk back up again, her full-faced smile slipping back into place. 

“Oh, that would be amazing! Is that okay?” Shelby says happily, turning to look at Kahu after shooting Mitch a grateful smile.

“Sure. I guess. Why not?” Kahu nods, fingernails digging into the surface of the counter. The Australian doesn’t seem to notice Kahu’s irritation, simply pulls a piece of paper from her purse and places it onto the counter in front of her. 

“Thank you so much! Here’s my number, maybe we can meet up tomorrow and go over it?”

“That’s… fine,” Kahu grumbles, her fist closing over the neatly folded paper, drawing it towards her. 

“Brilliant! Thank you again, Kahu,” Shelby turns her smile towards Mitch now, and Mitch can practically see the excitement radiating off her body like a kid in a candy store, “It was nice to meet you…”

“Mitch”

“Bitch.”

She and Kahu speak up at the same time, and Mitch frowns at her sister.

“It’s Mitch.”

“Bitch is also acceptable. It’s a nickname.”

“No, it’s not.”

“It is, she loves being called that.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Whatever you say.”

“Don't make me come round that counter, Kahu, I’ll have you on the floor in seconds.”

Kahu lets out a scoff, “I’d like to see you try.”

Shelby seems to sense where this conversation is going and uses the tense second of silence that follows as an opportunity to make her leave.

“Right, well, great to meet you, Mitch. I’ll see you tomorrow, Kahu.” 

And with that, she’s gone in a flurry of sunshine grins and floral-scented perfume, and Kahu is on her feet, her glare fixed onto her sister. For the first time, Mitch feels like she might actually be in danger. 

“What the hell was that?”

“You should be thanking me!” Mitch argues, shifting around the counter as Kahu goes to step towards her. 

“Thank you?”

“You’re welcome.”

Kahu’s scowl deepens, “I can’t believe you just did that. Now I have to hang out with Shelby! And do work!”

“Dude, I just got you a girls number!”

“I don’t want that girl's number.”

Now it’s Mitch’s turn to laugh, practically bending at the waist because the idea is just so ridiculous until she realises that Kahu is stone-cold serious. She stands upright so fast her head goes a little light. 

“You can’t be serious?” Mitch says, incredulous like she can’t quite believe what her sister is claiming. 

“What? I hate her.”

“Kahu, you very clearly have a crush on her.”

Kahu looks like someone just offered her a non-ghost brand vape, reeling back bodily, eyes wide as she stares at Mitch. 

“What? No, I don’t.”

“Yes. You do.”

Mitch almost can't quite believe she has to try and convince her sister of her own crush. Like she didn’t just watch her awkwardly fumble her way through an interaction with an extremely pretty girl who very clearly shares her feelings. Kahu has always been the self-assured one, the one with the unbridled confidence and strength to get through anything. She’s known exactly who she is since the moment she was born, it feels like, so to see her genuinely be befuddled about her own feelings for someone is highly amusing to an older sister. 

Kahu actually does seem to think it over for a second, but shakes her head and plants both of her hands down on the counter, 

“Even if I did - which I don’t - there is no way on earth that Shelby would like me. I mean, the girl is clearly straight.” 

Mitch laughs again, sharp and short this time, and it makes Kahu jump slightly, 

“How are you this oblivious? I will admit, I’m not the best when it comes to romance-”

“Understatement of the year.”

“-But I’m not blind. That girl came in with a pre-prepared note with her number on it for you.”

Kahu blinks.

“That's not… she might just always carry one with her. Like a business card.” 

“That’s dumb.”

“You’re dumb.”

“No, you are. A pretty girl was hitting on you for twenty minutes and you didn’t even realise. I bet there’s even a little note that's on that paper.” Mitch says smugly, gesturing down to the crumpled ball of paper in Kahu’s fist. Her sister’s nose scrunches up in disgust.

“No there isn’t.” 

“Why don’t you check?”

Slowly, hesitantly, like she doesn’t even really want to, Kahu unfolds the mess of paper in her hand and keeps it close to her chest. Mitch watches her brow furrow as she checks the note, and then leans forward over the counter to snatch a look before Kahu can snatch the note close to her chest and out of view.

Mitch is right because of course, she is. There’s a string of letters along with the paper, followed by a neatly written ‘text me’ and a tiny little smiley face tucked at the bottom. 

When she looks back at her sister, Kahu’s face is bright red and getting darker by the second, her eyes unfocused like all the little pieces and scraps of moments shared with Shelby are forming together in her mind, and she can finally see the bigger picture. 

“Oh.” Is all she says, ears tinged pink. 

Mitch decides that perhaps Kahu might be a little too overwhelmed for anymore teasing. Instead, she decides to throw her a bone, and reaches over to push the note in her hands towards her,

“Text her, dummy.” She says with fond affection and turns towards the shelves to finish stocking the ghost vapes onto the shelves. 

If she had looked at her sister for just a moment longer, she would have caught the tiny, shy smile that slowly wiggled its way onto Kahu’s face before she ducked her head and hid it behind the note from Shelby - her lips pressing into the digits of the phone number.

**Author's Note:**

> i believe in kahu supremacy


End file.
